Georgetown University Students Data Science Project: The Efficacy of Hospitality Chains’ Human Trafficking Recognition Trainings
American University Investigates the Florida Resource Map: A Deep Dive into the Effects of The Parental Rights in Education Act on LGBTQ+ Communities
Reducing Resource Gaps in Florida Through Human Centered Technology
This report by graduate students from the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University assesses how the Florida Resource Map can be further enhanced in collaboration with our partner organizations. Their analysis provides key insight on how FCI can bridge resource gaps by targeting vulnerable communities, broadening our engagement with partners, and improving functionality. By combining a literature review, landscape analysis, stakeholder interviews, and nonprofit data, the team produced a number of recommendations.
Assessing Gaps in Central Floridian’s Access to Preventative Healthcare
This report by graduate students at American University’s School of Public Affairs demonstrates the obstacles faced by Central Floridians in accessing preventative healthcare. These include issues surrounding health literacy, access to transportation, language barriers, and cost. The report seeks to supplement the relative lack of literature surrounding preventative healthcare access in Central Florida and make recommendations for improving the Florida Resource Map.
Evaluating the Efficacy of Urban Farms in Reducing Food Insecurity
Ending hunger is one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals outlined by the United Nations. In the United States, many communities, often communities of color, find themselves without reliable access to fresh, nutritious food. These “food deserts” exist in Central Florida. This report highlights the most effective methods of urban farming to help better inform policy decisions and nonprofit actions towards solving food insecurity.
Model Grant Proposal For FCI
This grant proposal, written by a team of graduate students at the University of Central Florida, serves as a model for our operations at FCI. In addition to helping secure funding for present FCI projects, having a model grant application can help our student interns create grant proposals for future projects. The application explains how FCI has applied its mission to real-world solutions and how potential funding will impact communities for both the short and long term.
Urban Farming with Infinite Zion
With pure passion and a plot of land, Raymond and Cherette Warthen at Infinite Zion Farms have built an innovative urban farm that serves Orlando’s underserved Parramore community.
We visited the farm in 2023. We are incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to tour Infinite Zion’s main farm and learn about Raymond’s journey in this endeavor that provides fresh, organic produce to Parramore while promising agricultural opportunities to the local homeless population.
We were thoroughly inspired and impressed by Raymond’s efforts to uphold Infinite Zion as the community’s gem, and are excited to share BitGarden with him. We are honored to work with Infinite Zion!
Nico Betancur — a Computer Science student partnering with FCI to work on his senior project — and Delanie Monroe — an Environmental Engineering student interning with FCI as part of the Bob Graham Center — are building BitGarden. BitGarden is a voice-assisted farming app that guides and educates users through the gardening process for a variety of crops.
With the Warthens’ collaboration on our BitGarden project and agreement to host the finished product as a public education tool at Infinite Zion, we can promote agricultural education initiatives and emphasize the growing importance of minority-led urban farms in Florida.
Follow FCI on social media for more updates on BitGarden! We also urge you to visit and donate to Infinite Zion farms if you are in favor of fighting food insecurity and empowering communities.
Strategic Planning for Social Media
Enhancing Stakeholder Participation
Municipal Outreach and how Municipalities in Florida Help Beneficiaries Access Resources
The Needs of Social Workers in Florida
Identifying Gaps in Resources Provided by Nonprofits to Beneficiaries
Through the University of Michigan’s School of Information, in Fall 2021, FCI partnered with undergraduate researchers from the University Reach Consulting Group. These students worked with FCI to investigate the distribution and accessibility of resources throughout the Central Florida area. Through a survey drafted and dispersed by FCI and the Central Florida Foundation, Reach compared the concentration of active resource providers across over fifteen counties in Central Florida.
It was found that education and disability resources were especially sparse across almost all counties, with the exception of Orange County. From there Reach concluded that proportional funding for such resources based on population size should be implemented. Explore their results online.